


Conjuring 101

by MoonyKat



Category: Original Work
Genre: Character Study, Drabble Collection, Drunken Shenanigans, Gen, Grandparents & Grandchildren, Mentally Unstable Sentient Food, Original Character(s), Original Universe, Prequel, The Magical Chicken Sandwich, Urban Fantasy, Wizards being wizards
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-21
Updated: 2015-11-20
Packaged: 2018-05-02 15:14:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5253002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonyKat/pseuds/MoonyKat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Never use that spell again," Vale's grandmother intones. Vale wonders how she gets her voice to sound so vaguely ominous yet directly threatening all at once. </p>
<p>The glare she levels at him is disturbingly intense even for her. Perhaps trying to conjure a creature that could do all of his conjuring for him was not a very good idea. But it wasn't as if Grandmother had explicitly said "No conjuring things with phenomenal cosmic powers and psychopathic tendencies". He would have taken notes, at the very least, if that had been the case.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Conjuring 101

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for checking out this original work! This series of drabbles will introduce the characters you'll come to know in my original story called "The Other" (well, that's the title I'm going with for now anyway). I know reading original fiction can be a bit scary, and sometimes even a bit painful, but hopefully reading this won't cause any permanent damage ;)

"Never use that spell again," Vale's grandmother intones. Vale wonders how she gets her voice to sound so vaguely ominous yet directly threatening all at once. 

"So you're saying I need more practice?" Optimism, he's been told, will not take him very far, but pretending to be naive has always done wonders (about 38% of the time). 

The glare she levels at him is disturbingly intense even for her. Perhaps trying to conjure a creature that could do all of his conjuring for him was not a very good idea. But it wasn't as if Grandmother had explicitly said "No conjuring things with phenomenal cosmic powers and psychopathic tendencies". He would have taken notes, at the very least, if that had been the case.

Instead he'd gotten "Manifest something you desire into reality, idiot boy, it shouldn't be that hard." Yeah, so, at the time he'd wanted someone else doing all of this (quite mentally taxing) magic for him. And maybe he'd also wanted some cotton candy. The result was... not entirely unexpected if Vale was being honest. 

It had looked like a tiny ball of cotton candy, right down to the small dark spots of candy flavoring, to the soft-looking woolly texture. But, and this was important, it had eyes. Large, shoe-button eyes so large and round and helpless that Vale himself had felt a little pathetic just standing there in the same room with it. Like some kind of second-hand hopelessness.

His grandmother's wrinkled sour face just became even more wrinkled and sour, if it were possible, most likely in response to something small and vulnerable seeking her help. In Vale's own experience, that was probably the best way to get his grandmother's shriveled excuse for a heart-shaped organ to shrivel even further. 

Then the creature began to laugh (which was doubly odd because it didn't have a mouth and triply odd because it's eyes were still very large and very pathetic looking). Vale, feeling the effects of the alcohol he'd consumed only five minutes after his grandmother came through his parlor door (a record even for him, as usually it only took 2 minutes until he was scrambling for something to numb the pain he felt under her cold penetrating gaze), began to feel a slight buzz and decided laughing was as good a response as any to conjuring a, possibly mentally unstable, sentient ball of cotton candy. Ooh, but maybe it could also conjure things? That had been his greatest desire when he'd cast the spell after all. 

"So can you- can you conjure shit?" Vale managed between giggles. 

The little ball of cotton candy stared at him pathetically while strange little laughs burbled out from... well Vale didn't really care to know. Then it glowed bright cherry red for a second. And then a chicken sandwich fell out of the ceiling. Vale's grandmother scuttled forward on her thin, veiny little legs trying to see what had appeared. 

Vale didn't give her any time to take the chicken sandwich in before he'd stuffed half of it into his mouth, then he chewed, swallowed, and proceeded to burp the first five letters of the alphabet completely unabashed.

"You disgustingly stupid boy!" His grandmother railed, frail matchstick arms waving in the air as if attempting to wave off his stupidity like an errant fly. "Look at this thing you've conjured!" Honestly, it was just cotton candy, well cotton candy with a few added quirks that were becoming more and more interesting by the second in Vale's opinion. If he could just have a tiny nibble of his new friend, (after they became better acquainted of course), then everything would be just about perfect. 

Vale was always getting bored and experimenting, and now he'd have a little dash of exciting unpredictability every day without even having to lift a finger himself. And pink cotton candy was his favorite. So, like, where were the downsides? 

"YOU THICK-HEADED, ALCOHOL-SOAKED IDIOT! The 'downsides' he says!" Oh, so maybe he'd said all of that out loud. 

Observing his grandmother in the throes of anger, he tried very hard to look and feel contrite. It lasted all of 2 seconds before the image of an elephant's ass, transposed over his grandmother's face, crossed his mind. A perfect fit down to the very last wrinkle.

His grandmother smacked him upside the head, surprising him into throwing the last bit of the chicken sandwich across the room and onto his favorite armchair. Vale pouted at it from his sprawled position on the floor. 

"The downsides to this little experiment of yours are 1) that it is strictly forbidden to conjure non-existent magical creatures into this dimension for any reason, you ill-bred dolt and 2) this thing is being driven mad by our reality and it's probably going to kill us all!" Vale giggled at her as she used her gnarled fingers to enumerate her points. Vale considered ignoring her rant and fetching his magical chicken sandwich, but now that he looked at his little cotton candy companion, he did notice that it seemed to be, for lack of the proper magical term because fuck magical books trying to re-define basic words, flashing. As though it were conjuring many different somethings, or perhaps one big, ginormous, amazingly huge something.

Vale secretly hoped it was a train even as his heart quickened with fear.

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING This will contain a few spoilers for future drabbles in this series and the main work. Basically read at your own risk, y'all.
> 
> If you're interested, here's a little bit more about the character Vale and the alternate dimension known as The Other: 
> 
> Vale is a 25-year-old fox demon who grew up in The Other. His parents died when he was only a kit and he was left with his psychic medium grandmother (who it was said slept her way through half The Other and was probably at least half succubus). His grandmother was always in and out on business helping various witches and warlocks with their problems and Vale was often left alone to entertain himself. As such he's very introverted, is wary of others, hates sharing, or even the thought of sharing to be honest, does not do well with others, and feels more than a little bitter toward his parents and grandmother. His best friend, Jon is a magician (and also a saint for putting up with Vale and his ridiculous schemes) in training from whom Vale likes to steal all kinds of nifty spells and potion ingredients for his own entertainment (read: nefarious purposes).
> 
> Vale is quite active in the Other's seedier underbelly (though many occupants of the Other's seedier underbelly would argue that not only is all of the Other seedy, but there are certainly seedier parts than their little corner). Like his grandmother and parents before him, he has an aptitude for the darker magics, and has made a name for himself as the only idiot who would actually try to duplicate and mass-produce a potion that almost put his insides on the outside. Vale loves potion-crafting and finding new spells (hence the spell stealing), but his greatest love is summoning, the act of combining potions and spells to create sentient beings. As a result, he now has a house full of rather odd little creatures he's summoned at one point or another.
> 
> Physically Vale is thin, probably a bit too thin because he drinks more than he eats and "works" more than he does either. He has scruffy brown hair, two large triangle-shaped ears and has perpetual 5 o'clock shadow because he thinks it makes him look dashing, and also serves another, though no less superficial, purpose of hiding a few of the scars he's gotten from various magic-related incidents. He usually wears jeans and soft long-sleeved shirts that hide the sealing marks on his arms. *Sealing marks help him maintain his glamour should he need it.
> 
>  
> 
> In the next few chapters I'll include more of these notes with more character information if anyone's interested. I really love writing these little random tidbits about the characters :)


End file.
